Timothy Hutton's name often comes up in lists of actors whose careers never lived up to their early Oscars promise.
Hutton was just 20 in 1981 when he won the best supporting actor Academy Award for the role that defined him: Conrad Jarrett, a teenager anguishing over his brother's death and the unraveling of his affluent suburban family in "Ordinary People." Critics raved about Hutton's debut feature film performance in "Ordinary People," directed by Robert Redford. Roger Ebert called Hutton "a wonderfully natural young actor," who captures how "absolutely tortured" his character is as the film begins.
Two years later, Hutton was trying to ride that Oscars wave. The actor was making a since-forgotten science-fiction movie in Canada in 1983, when he allegedly met a 14-year-old girl. That girl is now a 50-year-old former model whose explosive new rape accusation could describe a more ignominious aspect of Hutton's eventual post-"Ordinary People" career slide.
Sera Johnston's charges also could make the actor the latest casualty of a post-#MeToo reckoning with past sexual misconduct that an alleged victim says was never properly investigated or punished.
In a detailed and harrowing BuzzFeed News report published Monday, Johnston claims she was an aspiring teen actress who met her Oscars idol when he was in Vancouver, shooting the movie "Iceman." She said she was among a trio of middle-school students invited by Hutton to accompany him and his friends to his hotel room.
At the hotel, Johnston alleges, Hutton, then in his early 20s, served her drinks. He and one of his friends then led her into a separate room where they raped her.
Hutton and his representatives have hit back at Johnston's charges by saying he never met her. He also accuses her of making multiple attempts to extort money from him by falsely accusing him of sexual assault, IndieWire reported. Hutton is prepared to sue BuzzFeed if the publication doesn't retract its article, his defamation attorney, Tom Clare, said. Clare accused Johnston and BuzzFeed of engaging in "reckless and self-serving efforts to destroy Tim's reputation and career."
"Today, BuzzFeed chose to publish Ms. Johnston's false story," Hutton said in a statement provided to IndieWire. "BuzzFeed knew the truth because they were provided with documented evidence. What's really going on here is that Ms. Johnston's extortion attempts failed. She then decided to follow through on her threat to go to the press with her false story. When I became aware of this, I went to the FBI, signed a sworn statement, and filed a criminal complaint against Ms. Johnston for extortion. I will not stop fighting to expose this story for what it is _ a failed extortion attempt based on something that never happened."
But career damage already may be underway. Several hours after the BuzzFeed News article was published, news came that Fox had canceled Hutton's controversial series "Almost Family," The Wrap reported.
"Almost Family," which just finished its first season, follows a young woman who finds out that her father, a prize-winning fertility doctor, used his own sperm to conceive dozens of children. Hutton plays the doctor. Fox and Universal Television, however, refused to comment on whether Johnston's allegations had anything to do with the network cancelling the show, which had drawn poor ratings, The Wrap said.
Meanwhile, the Oscars-season rollout of the new Gloria Steinem biopic, "The Glorias," could be hurt by Johnston's allegations, Variety reported. In the film, Hutton plays the feminist icon's father.
BuzzFeed reported that Johnston filed a police report last year and said Hutton had agreed to a payout of $135,000, which was far less than the $1.5 million she originally sought. BuzzFeed backed up its reporting by saying it had spoken to five people who claim that Johnston told them about the alleged assault over the years. These people include Johnston's friends and her mother, a set decorator who worked on Hutton's film "Iceman."
The mother, Della Mae Johnston, told BuzzFeed News she found out about the alleged assault soon after it happened and took her daughter to a doctor and a psychiatrist. "I was extremely upset," Della Mae Johnston said. "I didn't know what to do."
She said she considered having her daughter go to police but decided it would "probably be worse for her if I pursued it."
It would have been the word of a "14-year-old nothing" against a "big-time movie star," Della Mae Johnston added to BuzzFeed News. "I would never work in the film industry again."
In 1983, Hutton could still be called a "big-time movie star," but that status wouldn't last long, as the entertainment site WhatCulture.com explained.
Indeed, Hutton may be the no. 1 example of how winning an Oscar can even hurt someone's career, WhatCulture.com said. "You can rise up from obscurity to become one of the most famous A-list stars in Hollywood or your career can shrivel up and wither away, with direct-to-DVD movies being your only remaining option," the site said.
To be fair, Hutton's career never "shriveled up." He continued to work in films and TV. But he never achieved the A-list promise of "Ordinary People."
Hutton, the son of the late actor Jim Hutton, spent some of his teen years in Berkeley and attended Berkeley High. After giving "one of the great performances" in a coming-of-age movie, Hutton did some "solid work," WhatCulture.com said. He starred in "Taps," a 1981 military school drama with then-up-and-comers Sean Penn and Tom Cruise in supporting roles. He also co-starred again with Penn in "The Falcon and The Snowman" and worked with notable directors like John Schlesinger and Sidney Lumet. For four years, he also was married to Debra Winger, one of the top actresses of the mid-1980s.
"Iceman," the movie Hutton was making in Canada in 1983, had an interesting premise. Hutton plays an anthropologist who is called in to study a prehistoric man, brought back to life after being frozen in Arctic ice for 40,000 years. The film garnered some good reviews, including from the aforementioned Ebert, who said it delivered "spellbinding storytelling." But it only earned about $7 million in the box office and is largely forgotten.
Overall, Hutton was never a dominating presence on the big screen like some of his contemporaries, including his "Taps" co-stars Cruise and Penn. "By the '90s, it was rare to see Timothy Hutton lead a film from a major studio," WhatCulture.com reported. "It was a slow and steady decline, but a decline nonetheless."
The new allegations against Hutton could hurt his efforts to return to the big screen with "The Glorias," Variety reported. In fact, Hutton could become the latest actor _ after Kevin Spacey, Jeffrey Tambor and Louis C.K. _ whose unreleased project is tainted by alleged sexual misconduct, Variety added.
The film is particularly vulnerable on this issue because it depicts Steinem's personal struggles with sexual harassment in the workplace and misogyny in society. "The accusations against Hutton fly in the face of what Steinem has come to symbolize in American culture, and could potentially derail the film's promotional plans," Variety said.
.jpg?w=600)
